


When the Lost Come Home

by whitesilence



Series: The Multiverse Theory [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Minor Original Character(s), Past Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-13
Updated: 2015-09-13
Packaged: 2018-04-20 12:56:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4788011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whitesilence/pseuds/whitesilence
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>Darcy could see that Steve was clearly having a hard time saying whatever it was and she didn’t really like standing around in the foyer. So she took pity on him and demanded, “Just spit it out, Steve. It can’t be that bad if everyone’s fine.”</em>
</p><p>  <em>“ShefoundaBucky.” Steve blurted, his eyes wide. “He’ssittinginthecar.”</em></p><p> </p><p>In which Jane creates a wormhole clear into another universe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When the Lost Come Home

**Author's Note:**

> A while back, I don't remember where or in response to which story (it wasn't one of mine) someone asked for Darcy dealing with Bucky's death instead of the other way around like we usually see. So I decided to write it. It was taking me forever so I decided to finish it today. This isn't what I wanted when I started. It doesn't even bear a passing resemblance to what it was when I started this morning. But well, here it is.

“Let me break the news to her first.” Steve said, turning in his seat to face him. “I know she’ll be happy to see you but she’s definitely not expecting you to turn up on the front porch today.”

Steve had parked the car in front of a blue craftsman style house surrounded by a low boxwood hedge. There were toys scattered in the yard and leaves that needed raking. A wreath of autumn branches and berries decorated the front door and a fat jack ‘o lantern sat on the steps leading up to the porch. It was exactly the kind of house James had pictured when he had imagined his future as a younger man, before the war. Steve told him that he and the Other James’s wife, Darcy, had picked it out, closed on it just before their wedding.

He didn’t know what the Other James had done to deserve such a life. Part of him was intensely curious about the family the Other James had in this universe. Another part of him was jealous of this happy home his other self had built, when he had been alone with nothing but blood and death and chaos to keep him company. 

“Alright.” he said, not taking his eyes off the house.

Steve got out and walked up to the porch. He saw a young girl with long dirty blonde hair, jump up into his arms when he opened the door. As he entered, James caught a glimpse of glasses and a familiar wide red smile, brown hair piled high and chunky knit sweater. Darcy was stunning and he found himself almost irrationally angry at the man who had held this gem of a life in his hands and let it go in a moment of foolishness. 

In his universe, he had never met Darcy Lewis, though he had heard of her. She was Dr. Jane Foster’s beloved lab assistant, killed sometime after the alien attack in London. He wondered now, if he would have liked the Darcy in his universe, if he’d have been able to find happiness with her like the Other James had found here.

***

Darcy was in the kitchen loading the dishwasher when she heard a car come to a stop in the street in front of the house. A glance out the window told her it was Steve in his sensibly inconspicuous mid-range sedan. The sound of the car door closing was soon followed by six year old footsteps running down the stairs.

“Don’t even think about opening the door!”

“But mom! It’s Uncle ‘merica!”

“You will wait until I get there Rebecca Anne and not a moment sooner.” she replied, drying her hands on a towel.

“Mooooom!”

Darcy made her way to the foyer, grumbling about not being old enough for this under her breath. She arrived just in time to see Steve catch her daughter in his arms.

“Uncle Steve!” she shouted at the top of her lungs. 

“Hello, kiddo. How’s it going?” Steve replied, catching her with practiced ease.

Darcy grinned at the sight of Steve holding her daughter, the joy obvious in both of them. But her grin was tempered by the bittersweet wish that Bucky was here to hold their daughter that way, all light and laughter.

“She didn’t open the door, did she?”.

Steve shook his head. “I opened it. Didn’t want to keep my best girl waiting!”

Rebecca shrieked and giggled as Steve tossed her up in the air, narrowly missing the chandelier, and caught her. Darcy was always worried that she would hit the light fixture one day but it was a habit Steve had started when Rebecca was a baby and she didn’t have the heart to stop them.

“Well come in and have some dinner, I was just about to pack it up.” she suggested, closing the door behind him. “And while you’re eating, you can tell me what brought you here in the middle of the week.”

“That sounds lovely, Darcy but I think it would be better if I told you now.” He set Rebecca on her feet and knelt down to meet her eye level. “Your mom and I have something we need to talk about. Can you go wait for us in the living room?”

Rebecca pouted but acquiesced without much complaint, a small miracle that could only be performed by Uncle Steve. Once she was out of earshot, he straightened and turned to face her, shuffling his feet nervously. She crossed her arms and arched her eyebrow.

“What’s going on, Steve? I’m guessing it’s nothing serious since I didn’t get any messages.”

He ran his hand through his hair. “I’m just not sure how to say this, Darcy. I have a hard time believing it myself and I’ve had a few days to absorb it. I’m sorry to spring it on you without any warning.”

“Spring what?” she demanded. “What happened?”

“You know that bridge Jane’s been working on?”

“Oh god, is she okay? Is she hurt?” Darcy exclaimed, immediately jumping to conclusions. “Where’s Thor?”

“No, no! Jane’s fine. Thor’s with her. Everyone is fine.” Steve was quick to reassure her. “It’s not like that it all.”

“Then what’s going on?”

“Well, it worked. It worked really well and…” 

Darcy could see that Steve was clearly having a hard time saying whatever it was and she didn’t really like standing around in the foyer. So she took pity on him and demanded, “Just spit it out, Steve. It can’t be that bad if everyone’s fine.”

“ShefoundaBucky.” Steve blurted, his eyes wide. “He’ssittinginthecar.”

“What?” she asked, slowly, not quite sure she’d heard him correctly.

***

James wasn’t sure what to expect when he entered the house but it certainly wasn’t the hard eyed, skeptical woman standing, arms akimbo, on the first step of the staircase. The little girl he had seen earlier was hiding behind her legs. He paused in front of the open door while Steve turned to introduce him.

“Darcy, this is James. James this is Darcy and Rebecca.” 

“Pleasure to meet you, ma’am.” he said. “Stevie here won’t shut up about you.”

Darcy looked a little dazed as she took his proffered hand. He tried not to show how much it affected him, that she took his metal prosthetic without hesitation. A tightness he hadn’t even been aware of in his chest uncoiled and a rush of warmth ran through him. He bent his head to brush his lips over her knuckles but when he straightened, he was confused by her wide eyes and the hand clapped over her mouth. Steve’s grin, meanwhile, could have powered Manhattan for a week.

“I’m sorry.” he said, shoulders bunching. “Did I do something wrong?”

“No.” she said, faintly. “No, not at all. It’s just...”

She inhaled deeply, her breath hitching. “Bucky said the same thing the first time I met him and then he kissed my hand the same way.”

James smiled a little, the expression felt awkward on his face because he’d had few occasions to smile these last few years. “Well, I’m glad he did something right.”

Movement out of the corner of his eye brought his attention to the little girl peeking out from behind her mother’s legs. Steve had told him about how she had been born premature, how worried the Other James and Darcy had been that she wouldn’t survive. But she had pulled through and seemed to have become the energetic, unruly child his mother had told him he deserved whenever he misbehaved. Though she wasn’t acting like it just now. He knelt down so that he could look her in the eye.

“Hello, Rebecca.”

“You look like my daddy.” she said, suspiciously. “But Uncle Steve says you aren’t him.”

“Well, he’s not wrong.”

“Then who are you?” she demanded, staring at his right hand. “My daddy had a metal hand like that.”

“Rebecca, don’t be rude.”

“No, it’s alright.” he said, glancing up at her. He tried to give her a reassuring smile but wasn’t entirely sure he’d succeeded. Turning back to the girl, he held his metal hand out. “Some bad men took my other arm away because it was broken and gave me this one instead.”

She touched his palm cautiously, running her finger across it slowly. “Did it hurt?”

It had been excruciating, what he could remember of the operation but he didn’t think a six year old should know that. Still, he wasn’t about to start by lying to her. “Yes.”

She snatched her hand back like she’d been zapped.

“It’s okay. It doesn’t hurt anymore.” He reassured her. But she ducked back behind her mother.

“Alright, why don’t you go get ready for bed?” Darcy suggested. “Then you can have an ice cream and Uncle Steve can read you a story.”

Rebecca nodded and scampered up the stairs leaving the three adults to stand awkwardly in the foyer for a moment before Darcy broke the silence.

“Okay, well! Why don’t we take this to the kitchen? Have either of you eaten?” she asked as she breezed between the two men.

***

Darcy didn’t know what to think as she leaned against the counter, watching her friend and the parallel universe version of her dead husband (?!) clear the plates of pot roast she’d dished out. She didn’t doubt that this was a James Barnes from another universe. She had thought Steve was trying to be funny at first, he could be such a little shit, but his serious expression and insistence that Jane really had brought someone over from another universe eventually convinced her to at least meet him. But while she would give just about anything to have her husband back, that didn’t mean this version of him would in any way be the same man. _But he smiles just the same,_ her mind whispered. _He looks at you the same. He seems like he could be good with Rebecca._

She shook off those thoughts as her daughter reappeared in the kitchen, dressed in pajamas and holding the stuffed toy version of Mjolnir that Jane had given her, back when it had been nearly as big as the little toddler. 

“Ready for ice cream?” she asked.

“Can I have chocolate?”

“Sure. Get your spoon.” She replied as she dug out the single serve containers of chocolate ice cream. “Anyone else want some?”

“Yes, please.” The two men said, looking at each other and grinning when it came out in unison. Darcy had to suppress a laugh. It was good to know that even in an alternate universe, the Winter Soldier still had a sweet tooth. 

She set out four cups of ice cream as Rebecca climbed up onto her chair and dug into her treat, the adults following suit. Darcy was silent while she ate but Steve and James peppered Rebecca with questions about school, her friends, her costume for Halloween, anything that seemed to come to mind. Rebecca enjoyed the attention, quickly returning to her usual animated self.

When they were done, Steve took Rebecca upstairs for tooth brushing and story time, leaving her and James to stare at each other over the kitchen table. Darcy wondered what he saw when he looked at her, a complete stranger who had been married to his parallel universe self. She knew she couldn’t be much of a picture, with her ratty clothes and allegedly long wear lipstick. She’d never quite lost all the pregnancy weight she’d put on when she’d had Rebecca, there were creases around her eyes that wouldn’t go away and her hair was frequently an artfully arranged unwashed bird’s nest. But it didn’t seem to stop this James from looking at her the same way Bucky had and it made her feel more than a little self conscious. 

To her, this James looked a dream too good to be true.

“Thank you for dinner. It was just like how my mom made it.” 

“Well, I did spend a long time figuring out the recipe.” She replied with a wistful smile. “It was his favorite meal. Is it yours too?”

“If it wasn’t before, it sure is now.” He stood and began gathering the dirty plates. She snatched them from him with a glare and moved to the sink, using the task to avoid having to look him in the eye while she searched for appropriate conversational topics.

“What’s the other universe like?” she asked, curiously. “Did you have a family there?”

There was a moment of silence before he replied. Apparently that wasn’t an appropriate conversational topic. She glanced back to see him leaning against the table behind her, his pose relaxed, long legs crossed at the ankle.

“No. It wasn’t… it wasn’t the kind of place you’d really want to have a family, if you could choose. It isn’t a very stable place.” He said, softly. “Most of the world is chaos. New governments get set up all the time but they don’t last long. Fear is currency there.”

He shifted to his feet, shoulders hunching just slightly, arms crossing.

“I escaped Hydra when Steve brought down the helicarriers. Found the Black Widow and her team after I started getting my memories back. Been following them around ever since, trying to do some good. But Steve Rogers never woke up after I fished him out of the Potomac and the Darcy Lewis in my universe died in London before I could meet her. Dr. Foster kept a picture of her on her desk. Thor loves to tell the story of how they all met but he never likes to talk about how she died.”

Darcy thought back to her years as Jane’s assistant and their time in London, trying to think of a likely scenario. “If your timeline is anything like this one, she probably died when Hydra tried to kidnap Jane. I almost died then, got the scars to prove it too.”

He looked up at her sharply. “I’m glad you didn’t.”

“Me too.”

They fell silent again after that, neither one knowing what to say. Darcy could see that this James had the same kind of scars as her Bucky but in different shapes and places. Bucky had had demons chasing him that he never could shake and while she missed him desperately, there were some days when she was wretchedly glad that he was out of their reach now. She wondered what kind of demons this James had, what he saw circling in the dark. For a brief moment, she thought about rejecting this James, letting him leave with Steve to whatever life he could find in this universe, knowing it would still be better than what he had left behind.

But if she was honest with herself, she knew she could never do that. Steve would never leave her alone about it for one thing and Bucky had always said that the best things in his life had come with her, that he didn’t want to live in a world without her in it and for all their rough patches, she would happily say the same of him. What kind of person would she be, letting any version of her husband go, letting a second chance at happiness for both of them slip through her fingers?

“Is Jane going to send you back?” she asked, looking down at the dishtowel twisted up in her hands.

“I’m not sure she can, at least not for a while.” He replied sheepishly. “I might have kind of destroyed her machine when I came through.”

“Do you want to go back?”

“Well, it seems like I could have a place here. Steve being around is also a big plus in this universe’s favor. So’s, you know, not having to look over my shoulder constantly.” He shifted again, posture relaxing as he rested on an elbow against the counter next to her. “And well, you’re in it too.”

Her head jerked up, finding him much closer than she’d been expecting. He looked down at her with dark eyes and she felt their mutual attraction charge the air between them.

“Do you want to stay?” she asked softly. “With me and Rebecca, I mean.”

He looked torn for a moment and she felt her heart sink. But then, “Only if you want me to.”

Darcy felt so light, she thought she might float away. She put her hand over his where it rested on the counter, just to be sure that he was real and that she wasn’t dreaming. Still...

“Is it too early to kiss you right now?” she asked.

“Doll, it’s never too early for you to kiss me.” he replied with the easy grin that her Bucky had hid behind when he was nervous about something.

She smiled back and tilted her face up to press her lips to his. He was frozen for a moment, as though surprised that she’d actually kissed him. But then his mouth softened and he began to kiss her back, proving that James Barnes in any universe was an excellent kisser. It turned desperate though, when she pulled him closer. The warmth and scent and _taste_ of him almost too much for her to comprehend.

The kiss was broken when he straightened but she clung to him, her face pressed against the soft cotton of his shirt. His arms came up and held her tight.

“You can stop eavesdropping now, Steve.” he said. 

Startled, Darcy turned to see Steve pop his head around the door frame with an unrepentant expression on his face. He looked entirely too pleased with himself.

“I’ll just see myself out then?” he asked.

She looked up at James with a questioning look.

“Yeah.” he said, his expression so achingly familiar yet different at the same time. “Now scram, ya punk.”

Steve left with alacrity, the door closing on his barely suppressed glee and leaving her standing with James in front of the sink. It was hardly romantic but she hugged him close to her, reveling in the feeling of being surrounded by him. His arms tightened around her in turn and all at once it was as if something that had been lost, that she had been searching for without knowing that she’d even been looking, had finally come home.


End file.
